About Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst

We work in the following areas…

Counselling

Care and support

Housing and accommodation

Education and training

Integration

Medical and psychotherapeutic treatment

… with asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and Austrians alike. We work with our clients as equals, in line with emancipatory and holistic principles. In addition, we work actively to prevent racism and discrimination through training and projects. In our public relations and lobbying work, we advocate for the legal, social and economic equality of foreigners who are permanent residents in Austria and Austrians alike. Our approach is human-rights based, particularly with regard to asylum, equality, unity of the family and for the right to a fair trial.

About Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst

Our four fields of expertise are:

Counselling

Our legal counselling centres provide advice and support in legal proceedings relating to foreign nationals and asylum as part of the Austria-wide working group on legal advisory support. We also operate independent legal counselling centres, funded by private donations and supported by a civil society-based network of volunteers.
In addition, our clients have access to advice and support in social issues at open social counselling centres and through outreach work in our housing and accommodation facilities.
The decision how to act or what measures should be undertaken lies with the client. We support clients to implement their decisions, submit briefs, appeals and statements, make requests and accompany clients to government offices, courts, doctors, schools and much more.

Accommodation and support

Accommodation and support means more than simply providing asylum seekers with a temporary roof over their heads. As well as providing the necessities in life, creating a daily routine and structure, stabilising basic health, and offering prospects and perspectives for the future are all central to our work. We offer our clients language courses and support to enable them to undertake further training, as well as providing access to public service occupation.

For clients with psychiatric conditions, we have need-oriented housing, intensive social and medical therapeutic support, and leisure educational programmes.

Psychotherapy and Health

We provide trauma-specific, culturally sensitive and interpreter-assisted psychotherapy. Since we are dependent on the translation skills of the interpreters, one of our tasks is to provide special training and support for our interpreters. In addition to individual support, we work to raise awareness of the specific psychological situation of refugees and the effects of trauma.

AmberMed provides out-patient medical care, counselling and medication for people without health insurance.www.amber-med.at

Integration

The individual clients with their needs and capabilities are the central focus of our integration work at Diakonie Refugee Service. We support them to develop their skills and potential, as well as providing guidance as they gradually implement their plans for the future. Our range of services is as varied as the needs of our clients:

Psychosocial counselling and

Integration counselling, housing and accommodation,

Various measures for acquiring qualifications and language acquisition

Assistance with integration into the labour market

Integration can only succeed if the host society it is also ready to actively contribute which is why we work intensively with Austrians to create places in our projects where people can meet. We also provide support and advise municipalities in integration issues.